User blog:Brady26/In the Jaws of Cragmaw Cave
Entering the Greater Eldswall region, the wagons passed through the hilly roadways of the west, slowly drifting further apart as they travelled at different paces. Discussing combat techniques, Rack noticed some figures carrying something off into the woods in the distance, not thinking anything of it, he continued to listen to Kadmos' explanation of his martial prowess. Ahead, Cai and Khez noticed the cart ahead of them is abandoned, some of the barrels missing and evidence of an attack. Moving to investigate, Khez noticed some tracks and started searching the ground for what might have happened, unable to establish how many might have attacked the wagon, he figures roughly the direction they travelled in. Realising someone would have to stay with the wagons, Cai asked who should stay behind, when a voice called from beneath the cover of the wagon, it belonged to Siris Moots, a labourer that worked for Ertvine who was knocked out during the fight, breaking his arm after falling from the wagon. He offered to stay with the wagons and finds some healing potions made by Ertvine to the group. Searching for signs of a trail, Khez found a small vial with bright glowing liquid, which Rack grabbed and consumed, the liquid evaporating as soon as it touched his mouth and emitting a bright light from his mouth and face, as if someone had cast the ''Light ''spell upon him, for the remainder of the search for Chamain and Sildar the golden dragonborn shone like a beacon. Setting off after the trail, the group encountered some traps; a snare and a pitfall that they were able to notice before they fell afoul of them, Rack however attempted to leap across the pit rather than walk around it and fell into it, landing on the hard stones below. Getting Rack out of the pit the group travelled on, Khez hacking away the brush, noticing that the brush around waist height had already been pushed back, obviously by smaller creatures, with that knowledge and the foot prints of one of the creatures he believed they were tracking kobolds. They emerged from the brush suddenly, seeing two kobold guards that also saw them, without hesitation Khez threw a spear and initiated a fight. After fighting the kobolds outside, the group delved into the cave tunnel they were protecting, finding a juvenile guard drake chewing on the arm of one of the kobolds that had fled the fight outside the cave. Attempting to calm the beast, Kadmos occupied it with eating the flesh of the kobold as they looked around, noticing a chimney that could be climbed behind the drake. Clambering up it, Rack was noticed by a kobold, who asked who he was, holding out a hand in some sort of greeting that Rack could not return. When Rack reached the top, he saw Chamain in a large pot being very slowly boiled, when the sorcerer that dwelt there unleashed beams of scorching rays at him, following up after him were Cai, Kadmos and Barra, with Khez choosing to find another route. The sorcerer wore a pair of fake wings, whilst the other kobolds in the room had actual wings and were able to cling to walls and drop stalactites on the groups heads. Khez found a bridge with a kobold guard atop it, whom he dispatched with an axe, beyond which he discovered a dam holding back a great deal of water. As the sorcerer fought the group, he called to the kobold workers outside the den who were attending to the dam, they attempted to break the dam believing there to be more intruders elsewhere in the cave. Caught between the party and Khez, the sorcerer tried desperately to fight them off, drawing on dangerous magicks to defeat them, managing to overwhelm some of the group, but with the intervention of Chamain who carried a number of healing potions he was able to recover, the group stablised and were able to defeat the sorcerer. Barra found a strange amulet on the sorcerer, which he recognised as belonging to the god Tiamat, he felt power in the amulet and donned it, Rack found a strange dwarven device that looked by a mantelpiece clock with faces on each of the four sides. Looking for Sildar, the group encountered a room filled with alchemical smoke and soot where many of the worker kobolds slept, above them were two kobold alchemists that held Sildar Hallwinder above a precipice and threatened to drop him should the intruders not lay down their weapons. Khez prepared himself to catch Sildar if they did drop him, the group pushing on into the room, hacking down the worker kobolds around them. The alchemists hurled strange inventions and concoctions at them, dropping Sildar as the party continued to cut through their kin. Khez manged to catch the falling Sildar in time, hurting himself in the process but managing to preventing the badly wounded human from being killed by the fall. Fighting up the stone stairs the party defeated the kobolds inventors, with Barra's thunder wave pushing the last of them onto a stalagmite, impaling the mad alchemist. Searching the cave the group found the stolen barrels along with a number of the creations of the kobolds, including a pair of goggles that protected one's eyes from bright light. The group left the cave, Kadmos freeing a skunk the kobolds had captured, with Cai also freeing the guard drake whilst it slept. Category:Blog posts